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	LuxLeaks whistleblowers did the right thing and should not have been convicted by Transparency International Secretariat   March 2017   Transparency International, the global anti-corruption movement, condemns the guilty verdict and sentencing of Antoine Deltour and Raphaël Halet, the two whistleblowers who revealed secret tax rulings between the Luxembourg authorities and multinationals, known as “LuxLeaks”.   This trial was an appeal of the 29 June 2016 verdict that saw Deltour receive a 12 month suspended sentence and a fine of 1,500 euros, while Halet received a 9 month suspended sentence and a fine of 1,000 euros. Both Deltour and Halet as well as the Luxembourg Prosecutor appealed the sentencing.   The acquittal of Edouard Perrin, the journalist who first reported on LuxLeaks, has been confirmed, but he should never have been prosecuted in the first place.   The LuxLeaks disclosures brought the issue of corporate tax avoidance to public attention and led to greater tax transparency efforts by the Luxembourg government, the European Commission, the OECD and the G20.   “What Antoine Deltour and Raphaël Halet did by disclosing these million-dollar sweetheart tax deals – tax money that should have gone to help EU citizens – showed major courage. They acted in the public interest, and without whistleblowers like them, we would not see real effort to tackle tax dodging,” said Marie Terracol, Whistleblowing Programme Coordinator at Transparency International.   Whistleblowing is essential to help uncover and prevent wrongdoing. Yet, across the EU whistleblowers like Deltour and Halet often face retaliation due to inadequate whistleblower protection laws. Transparency International calls for EU-wide legislation on whistleblower protection.   “Today’s verdict is extremely disappointing and shows the need for EU-wide whistleblower protection legislation in line with prevailing international standards. The EU needs to raise the bar and show that it is serious about protecting those who act in the public interest,” said Terracol.   Antoine Deltour was convicted and sentenced to 6 months suspended prison and 1,500 euros fine. Raphaël Halet was convicted and sentenced to 1,000 euros fine.   Dec. 2014   Whistleblowers should be protected, not prosecuted, writes Gerard Ryle from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).   Luxembourg authorities have brought a littany of charges against a whistleblower who has been accused of stealing and leaking secret tax rulings that revealed widespread corporate tax avoidance, and prompted rigorous political debate around tax policy reform.   ICIJ director Gerard Ryle says Luxembourg''s decision to indict the young man is a threat to transparency and accountability in the jurisdiction and elsewhere:   "ICIJ does not comment on sources. However, ICIJ does believe whistleblowers should be protected, not prosecuted.   Protection of whistleblowers and sources is as important to society as the freedom of the press. Any prosecution against journalists or journalists’ sources has a dangerous chilling effect on the pivotal role these brave individuals play in ensuring the powerful are held accountable.   The Luxembourg Leaks investigation is an important piece of journalism that raises critical questions about tax policy and practices around the world at a time of economic struggle.   Previously secret information that affects members of the public was made available for public scrutiny for the first time. The files revealed aggressive tax avoidance strategies that damage national treasuries and benefit large corporations at the expense of taxpayers.   Investigations like this rely on concerned citizens who wish to see a more transparent society and would not be possible if these citizens fear prosecution and persecution for their part in uncovering injustice, corruption or wrongdoing."   http://www.icij.org/project/luxembourg-leaks http://business-humanrights.org/en/ngos-academics-and-politicians-condemn-plans-to-prosecute-source-that-exposed-luxembourg-tax-deals Visit the related web page
	Save the Children calls for unrestricted aid access to Yemen by WFP, Save the Children, agencies   Apr. 2017   Lift blockade of Yemen to stop “catastrophe” of millions facing starvation, say UN experts.   The blockade of war-ravaged Yemen must be lifted immediately to allow the entry of relief supplies to tackle a humanitarian catastrophe in which millions of people are facing famine, says a UN rights expert.   The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and international sanctions, Idriss Jazairy, says the plight of people in the country is becoming increasingly desperate.   UN figures suggest that more than 21 million people - about 82% of the population - are in need of humanitarian assistance. Seven million of them are facing famine.   Thousands of civilians have also been killed in airstrikes which have been continuing since the conflict deepened more than two years ago with the military intervention of a Saudi-led coalition.   “The unwarranted restrictions on the flow of commercial and humanitarian goods and services into Yemen and impeding distribution within the country are paralyzing a nation that for far too long has been a victim of war,” the UN expert says.   Mr. Jazairy stressed that the aerial and naval blockade imposed on Yemen by the coalition forces since March 2015 was one of the main causes of the humanitarian catastrophe. It has restricted and disrupted the import and export of food, fuel and medical supplies as well as humanitarian aid.   The blockade involves a variety of regulatory, mostly arbitrary, restrictions enforced by the coalition forces – including an unreasonable delay and/or denial of entry to vessels in Yemeni ports. Mr. Jazairy says it amounts to an unlawful unilateral coercive measure (UCM) under international law.   The UN Special Rapporteur pointed to the dramatic situation of Al Hudaydah Port, the major lifeline for imports into Yemen, a country that is 80–90% dependent on imported food, medicines and fuel for its survival.   Following airstrikes in August 2015, the port now operates at reduced capacity. Mr. Jazairy deplored in particular that new cranes which could replace those destroyed by the airstrikes and help restore Al Hudaydah to its full capacity, cannot be unloaded because long clearance procedures have the effect of disabling port facilities and slow to a trickle humanitarian imports, causing vital supplies to be wasted.   “Despite assurances from the coalition forces, the situation on the ground remains desperate,” Mr. Jazairy says. “The blockade involves grave breaches of the most basic norms of human rights law, as well as of the law of armed conflict, which cannot be left unanswered.”   He expressed his “deep concern at this man-made famine which is generated by the conflict.”   “I call on all parties to the fighting to spare the basic rights to life, food and decent living of innocent civilians and to pursue the settlement of their differences through negotiation while restoring unhindered access to the port of Al Hudaydah immediately, especially for humanitarian supplies,” the expert concluded.   Mr. Jazairy’s appeal has been endorsed by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Ms. Hilal Elver, and the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, Mr. Alfred de Zayas. http://bit.ly/2oujZKU   Mar. 2017   WFP head says ''race against time'' under way to prevent Yemen famine. (WFP, agencies)   Aid workers are in a "race against time" to prevent famine threatening millions of people in Yemen, a senior U.N. official said in Monday.   "We have only about three months of food stored inside the country today," Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the World Food Programme, told reporters after a three-day visit to the wartorn country.   "We do not have enough food to support the scale-up that is required to ensure that we can avoid a famine."   After almost two years of war between a Saudi-led Arab coalition and the Iran-allied Houthi movement, 7.3 million Yemenis are classed by the U.N. as "severely food insecure".   "It is a race against time, and if we do not scale up assistance to reach those who are severely food insecure, we will see famine-like conditions in some of the worst-hit and inaccessible areas which means that people will die," Cousin said.   WFP was able to reach a record 4.9 million needy people in Yemen last month. But Cousin said inadequate funding meant it was forced to reduce food rations to stretch assistance to more people.   "What we have been doing is taking a limited amounts of food that we have in the country, and spreading it as far as possible, which means that we have been giving 35 percent rations on most months, we need to get to 100 percent rations," she added.   The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said last month Yemen''s estimated supplies of wheat would run out at the end of March.   Mar. 2017   Delays to Yemen aid killing children as famine looms – Save the Children   Saudi Arabia and its coalition allies are delaying Save the Children’s shipments of aid for Yemen by months, despite a looming famine that threatens to grip much of the country and a healthcare system on the brink of collapse.   Children have died as a result of recent delays, with hundreds of thousands of people denied access to urgently-needed medical aid, the charity is warning.   In just the first two months of this year, the Saudi-led coalition prevented three of the charity’s shipments of life-saving medical supplies from landing at the country’s main port of Hodeida, forcing them to be rerouted and delaying their arrival by up to three months.   The three shipments were carrying enough aid to help 300,000 people – including antibiotics, surgical equipment, medicine to treat diseases like malaria and cholera, and supplies to support malnourished children.   The delays prevented 51 healthcare facilities supported by Save the Children from functioning fully, and left mobile health teams unable to bring assistance to rural locations that lack health services.   In the most recent case, a two-tonne shipment of Save the Children’s medical supplies and equipment for nearly 40,000 people, including 14,000 children under the age of 5, was due to land in Hodeida on December 2nd 2016. It eventually arrived in the smaller port of Aden 83 days later – after being held off the coast of Hodeida and then forced to reroute by the Saudi-led coalition.   From Aden, supplies often have to cross active conflict lines via land routes, putting both the supplies and humanitarian staff at risk.   Grant Pritchard, Interim Country Director for Save the Children in Yemen, said: “These delays are killing children. Our teams are dealing with outbreaks of cholera, and children suffering from diarrhoea, measles, malaria and malnutrition. With the right medicines these are all completely treatable – but the Saudi-led coalition is stopping them getting in. They are turning aid and commercial supplies into weapons of war.”   The coalition has also recently refused access for four new cranes supplied by the World Food Programme, which would have vastly improved the ability of Hodeida to unload essential supplies from vessels that manage to make it into port.   Yemen relies on imports to Hodeida for supplies of humanitarian aid, fuel and food, including 90 percent of its supplies of wheat.   The port has been unable to function fully after airstrikes destroyed five cranes in August 2015 – and escalating fighting has further prevented ships from unloading quickly, forcing them to wait offshore.   It is now becoming increasingly difficult to find commercial shipping companies willing to make the journey to Hodeida port for fear they may spend weeks waiting off the coast with no guarantee they will be able to unload their cargo.   Pritchard added: “These WFP-supplied cranes are a temporary but simple solution to the problems at Hodeida. Without them, imports of fuel, food and humanitarian aid will continue to be held in limbo offshore. It is outrageous that Yemen’s largest port continues to face a de facto blockade as millions of Yemenis face starvation.”   Seven million people are facing severe food shortages in Yemen. More than two million children under the age of 5 are acutely malnourished, including nearly half a million who are the most extreme level and in critical danger. Nine areas of the country, including Hodeida, are categorised at IPC-4, just one level below famine.   More than half of the health facilities assessed in 16 of the 22 assessed governorates in Yemen are closed or partially functioning due to the conflict, leaving over 14.8 million people in need of basic healthcare – including 8.1 million children.   http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/wfp-launches-emergency-operation-yemen-feed-millions-brink-famine http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/wfp-appeals-access-and-resources-prevent-famine-yemen http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/522843/icode/ http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-detail-forms/ipcinfo-map-detail/en/c/522844/ http://tmsnrt.rs/2lVhO3h http://www.msf.org/en/article/yemen-war-taking-very-high-toll-civilian-population Visit the related web page
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